Covered
by BlackRose108
Summary: For the fans of my "Fire War Renaissance" story some snippets of Toph's life before she became the Blind Bandit and her relationship with a certain butler. Toph x OC


**This was inspired by a character from my other story "Fire War Renaissance". Some of you may know this character as Yuexi, the Bei Fong's butler. He is a very short lived character for now, only being in about two or three chapters, but his presence is well know and he seems to have quite a thing for our blind earth bender, so I thought I'd elaborate on this matter in some snippets of thier history together since I don't think it'll be thoroughly addressed in the story (but if it is…well…you heard it here first folks).**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar, but I do own Yuexi. **

Covered

"Are you alright Toph?" Yuexi asked when Toph came inside from running away, yet again. She was only seven at the time and twelve year old Yuexi was worried sick the day that Toph wasn't there to "play" with him.

"Mmm hmm," he expected to see tears in her eyes, as she usually had when she came back from one of her runaways but this time she was smiling, her wide, green eyes beaming in a new light he'd never seen. "I've got something to tell ya, Yuexi." She whispered in a mock tone and pulled the small cook over to her by the collar. He worked in the kitchen on clean up while his dad did all the cooking with the other chefs. He had known Toph ever since she was born and always played with her even due to her blindness which, needless to say, was getting worse since her parents kept her inside all the time.

"What?" He teased her and messed up her hair playfully.

"I met some badger moles when I ran away," her smiled only grew but Yuexi screamed loudly.

"Shut up you dummy, Mom and Dad will hear you!" She whispered urgently and covered his screaming mouth.

"B-b-but badger moles are dangerous, they could've hurt you."

"But they didn't they actually helped me," Yuexi corked a brow at the girl's words but leaned back and crossed his legs to listen. He heard the whole story strait from her mouth, the cave, the moles, the lesson, the seeing with earth bending. Yuexi wasn't a bender and he had no physical disability so he couldn't really put himself in Toph's shoes at the slightest but was glad at the fact that she seemed so happy. Her blindness and her parents hinder for her to use earth bending was enough to make any young girl's life a little on the down side but now she seemed so at peace, so proud of herself, so……..normal almost.

It was only a week after her run in with the moles and Yuexi already started to see how she was harnessing her abilities.

"Hey, Yuexi!" She called from all the way down the hall, something Yuexi had never seen before. How could she tell he was all the way down the hall when he was quietly sitting on the 

stone floor reading? He smiled again, realizing that her abilities went much past a normal human's eye sight. And a year later, she was eight and was able to tell even when he was tossing and turning down the hall in his room.

0o0o0o0o0

"I don't know about this Toph, it seems dangerous." Yuexi put his opinion to Toph's crazy plan to secretly attend an earth rumble, she was ten years old, bold and in full control of her "sight" and ready to show off her new usage of mighty earth bending.

"Everything to you is dangerous." She scowled at him and snatched the flyer away from his hand. "I don't care what you think, I'm going to kick some butt and I can either get in trouble for it or you can cover for me and I won't have to punch your lights out." She raised a fist at him and he rolled his eyes. The ten year old had slowly begun to phase out of the cute, innocent little girl she was before learning to earth bend. It had made her harder somehow and even though it was a lot harder to deal with her attitude than when she was smaller Yuexi thought it was better for her to be tougher than to be the spineless girl she once was. So he just managed.

"Alright, alright." He agreed when she placed her fist down and laid it on his hand, it was a new gesture she had started doing—a light grasp at his hand—and anytime she did this she could easily get whatever she wanted from him. Which Yuexi new she had figured out and considered it the only reason why she even showed such a ginger gesture. "On one condition," Toph grasped his hand tighter to get him to take back the condition but he used all his will to keep an unfazed face.

"What?" Toph muttered under her breath and flipped the strand of hair hanging in her face.

He leaned down towards her to meet her in the eyes, even though she knew he couldn't see her she could tell how close he was and it made her a little nervous. "Promise me you won't get hurt." Toph smiled affectionately and leaned nearer to him only to twist his nose.

"I think you should be worrying about my opponents' safety, not mine." She snorted and crossed her arms.

"Toph," Yuexi sighed softly and she moved to punched him but then stopped, hugging him lightly instead.

"I know, don't worry about me." He smiled and wrapped his arms around her shoulders.

And every time she returned from another year's earth rumble her smile only got bigger, her hugs tighter, and her ego ore monstrous

0o0o0o0o0

"Please, Yuexi just let me go and do this!" Toph yelled at Yuexi's firm grasp.

"No, Toph I won't let you leave, I lost my father, I'm not going to lose you either." Yuexi was still suffering badly at the recent, tragic event of his father's death. The Bei Fong's thought it was best if Yuexi just left the house altogether but he decided to stay and become a butler, mostly to stay connected to his father, and Toph. But now that Toph wanted to go off with the Avatar after he was just kicked out of the house made him feel the pain all over again.

"I thought you wanted what was best for me! You said that you wanted to me to reach my full potential in life, that you knew I was destined for greater things!"

"I didn't think that your full potential would be away from me." He dropped his head shamefully when he realized what he was doing, what he was feeling. He was in love with a twelve year old girl and was almost sixteen. He balled his fists up and began shaking, taking slow, uneven steps towards her.

"Yuexi, you know I wasn't meant for here, I'm twelve years old and I've never even been to a different city, I've never even been in _this _city at that. I've never gone to school, I've never had a normal life, and I've never even had a real friend." She said the last part without thinking and Yuexi stopped dead in his tracks.

"So what am I to you then?" he asked darkly, and shot a cold glance at her. Toph suddenly felt frozen when he grabbed her shoulders and force her against him.

"Yuexi, I didn't, I mean, you'll always be dear to me but….I-"

"You want something else don't you, I'm not a good enough acceptance is that what you're saying?" Toph felt tears rolling down her cheeks and staining Yuexi's clothes; clutching him tighter on his sides.

"So what am I?" he asked her again and she looked upward in his general direction.

"I-I don't know." She backed away, reaching up to wipe her eyes but felt Yuexi's warm thumbs drying her face instead.

"Go," he ordered softly so no one would hear her leave, and he watched her go without even looking back, perhaps she didn't want to be reminded of what she was leaving but he did hear a fait whisper of: "good-bye Yuexi," even with the tone of her voice he could tell she was smiling and somehow, despite his sadness, he smiled too.

He had always covered for her. It was almost like a habit. But it obviously wasn't good enough.

**I don't know what it is about this couple, but I love how this turned out. I know how people feel Teo a better match for Toph due to how he has a disability as well but I don't think that'll do a thing for Toph's image of herself. I think what Toph needs in a mate is normalcy, someone who's just regular and loves her despite her blindness so I think that's why I love how Yuexi just slipped into this role so effortlessly to me. **

**Review please! **


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